Pope Francis on Monday told a contentious gathering of the world’s bishops on family issues to put aside their personal prejudices and have the courage and humility to be guided by God.
Pope Francis told 270 cardinals, bishops and priests that the three-week synod isn’t a parliament where negotiations, plea bargains or compromises take place. Rather, he said, it’s a sacred, protected space where God shows the way for the good of the church.
The bishops are debating how the church can better care for Catholic families at a time when marriage rates are falling, divorce is common and civil unions are on the rise.
The main sticking points include how the church should welcome gays and divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
Conservatives have been insisting that the gathering strongly reassert church doctrine on homosexuality and the indissolubilty of marriage, while progressives are seeking a more merciful approach to a host of family problems.
In his opening remarks on Monday, Pope Francis repeated a phrase he used in his homily a day earlier that the church’s law cannot become an impediment to its mission of mercy. “God created law and the Sabbath for man, not vice versa,” he said.
He called for the bishops to show apostolic courage, evangelical humility and faithful prayer over the next three weeks.
The courage, he said, was needed since the church’s attitudes can, “despite good intentions, distance people from God” and threaten to “make Christian life a museum of memories.”
He said humility was needed so bishops empty themselves of “their own beliefs and prejudices to listen to their brother bishops and fill themselves with God.”
“A humility that doesn’t point the figure against another to judge them but to extend a hand to help them up without feeling superior to them,” he said.
And he called for prayer to hear the “soft voice of God that speaks in silence.”
